Between 1982 and 2000, the Netherlands experienced a remarkable economie recovery. Labour participation rose from a European low of 52 percent to the European average of 65 percent. Unemployment decreased from a high of 14 percent to a present-day low of 2% percent, while government finances and...

Commonly increases in total factor productivity (TFP) are associated with technological innovations measured by R&D expenditures. Empirical evidence seems to corroborate this relationship. However, in trading countries like the Netherlands, productivity increases, even in industry, can also be...

This study presents an explorative econometric analysis of the influence of labour market flows on wage formation. It applies the vector cointegration and common trends methodology of Johansen (1995). According to this approach, a combination of the flow of layoffs (flow from employment to...

Specialisation and trade are major sources of productivity increases, and therefore of welfare gains. With reference to the Netherlands this paper discusses how (international) fragmentation of production and outsourcing may enhance productivity. In order to promote further specialisation and...

In the institutional set-up of (economic) policy preparation in the Netherlands there is ample interaction between scientific insights and policy proposals. This Dutch polder model lays much emphasis on the social dialogue to come to an agreement on, and have public support for policy proposals....

Our small empirical stock-flow model for the Dutch economy, which endogenizes the adjustment dynamics to (un)employment search equilibria, identifies two mechanisms that caused persistente in labor market adjustments: (i) job competition from non-participants, and (ii) asymmetrie adjustments to...

This paper estimates the short run and long run influences of the main determinants of the German long-term interest rate using quarterly data for the period 1982-1999. A major reason for our focus on the German interest rate is that this rate, and hence its determinants, will be dominant in...

In de EMU vormt het arbeidsmarktbeleid het belangrijkste instrumentarium om op nationaal niveau asymmetrische schokken op te vangen. De algemene beleidswens daarbij is om - in overeenstemming met de Lissabon strategie - de arbeidsmarktflexibiliteit te verhogen. Tussen de EMU-lidstaten bestaan...

A major aim of recent empirical modelling of the business cycle is to identify the relative importance of aggregate supply and demand shocks. Supply or technology shocks are associated with permanent (structural) effects on economic activity whereas demand shocks are related to temporary...

Differences in optimal firm size may only be explained by heterogeneity amongst enterprises and the markets in which they operate. Therefore, the concept of the rep-resentative enterprise from the traditional theory of the firm is not helpful in explaining size differences. Differences in firm...